Fresh examinations of the activities of Henry V, looking at how his reputation was achieved.

The life of the warrior king and the Battle of Agincourt 1415

This volume, the first of a two-volume set, is the work of fourteen European and American scholars and focuses on the wider aspects of the Hundred Years. These essays range far afield from the traditional heartlands of Hundred Years War studies to investigate the influence of the conflict on Italy, the Low Countries, and Spain and on such topics as urban history, and the actualities of weapon use on the battlefield. A number of the essays in this collection seek to re-examine old but thorny questions long associated with the conflict, including the real immediate impact of gunpowder technology on siege warfare during the fourteenth century and the “purposeful” strategy of Henry V in staging and bringing about the battle of Agincourt in 1415. With contributions by L.J. Andrew Villalon, María Teresa Ferrer i Mallol, Donald J. Kagay, Clara Estow, William P. Caferro, Sergio Boffa, Peter Michael Konieczny, Paul Solon, Manuel Sánchez Martínez, James E. Gilbert, Jane Marie Pinzino, Clifford J. Rogers, Kelly DeVries, and John Clement. Winner of the 2014 Verbruggen Prize of De Re Militari (the Society for the Study of Medieval Military History) given annually for the best book on medieval military history.

'Agincourt! Agincourt! Know ye not Agincourt?' So began a ballad of around 1600. Since the event itself (25 October 1415), Agincourt has occupied a special place in both English and French consciousness. Some early French writers could not bring themselves to mention it by name, using instead descriptions such as 'the accursed day'. For the English, it was one of the greatest military successes ever, and thus was celebrated and commemorated in many forms over the centuries which followed. In the First World War, there were stories of angelic Agincourt bowmen giving support and inspiration to the British army. Much ink has been spilt on the battle but do we really know Agincourt? Many historical works have relied on one or two well known sources or even on Shakespeare. Not since Harris Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt was published (1827-33) has there been a full attempt to survey the sources. This book brings together, in translation and with commentary, English and French narrative accounts and literary works of the fifteenth century. It also traces the treatment of the battle in sixteenth -century English histories and in the literary output of, amongst others, Shakespeare and Drayton. After examining how later historians interpreted the battle, it concludes with the first full assessment of the extremely rich administrative records which survive for the armies which fought 'upon Saint Crispin's day'.